From Tehran, Iran (Islamic Republic of) to Mumbay, India - August, 2008

i was in Esphahan thinking what about to do, after lost the chance twice to get a pakistani visa; in italy first, and at the pakista embassy in tehran late. i went to a local travel agency to bring infos if a bike shipment via air was available. they told me yes we can! (what abused words...)but you must to go to tehran to do that. back to tehran, went to the shipping agent suggested me by the esphahan agency. he says yes we can do it with mahan air, but he also ask me 2000$ for the shipment only ( crating, custom clearance, agent commission not included)i say to him the same amount it could allowed me to ship the bike directly from italy to india.i decide to insist, check the cargo agents one by one (the cargo area it is located just in front of terminal 2, international fly of mehrabad airport, tehran). finally i found out sama rah air cargo service, the right one.
the entire procedure it takes me 3 days.
day 1- go to the airport and check for the shipping agent, ask what i have need to, and contracting the fares. always ask for all inclusive fare (bike crating,bike shipment, custom clearance, agent commission and all the cheap but necessary bribes).
day 2- crating the bike (remove front wheel & fender, windscreen, oil, gasoline and disconnect battery plus flat the tires)and starting the custom procedure; you must have a farsi speaker to do that, or you'll waste a lot of time jumping from an office to another...
day 3-ending the custom procedure (the man who aid me to do that is mr. ebrahimikia mohamed from sama rah air cargo service). payng the final bill, get the copy of it, and wait for leaving; both on the same plane, me and my bike.
i flew with iran air the cheapest one. the shipment fares include bike crating 206x96x126 415kg. chargeable weight,fly bill, dangerous fee, custom clearance and agent commission.
once in mumbay the story ran little bit different; i was approached by an agent wich suggested me to deal with him, otherwise i'll spend not less than 5-6 days to clear the crate from the custom; commission requested 100 Eu. plus all the custom expenses... says no thanx more expensive to me. went to the custom office, show the carnet but they ask me a go-ahead letter from the indian automobil club to start the process !?! took the train to mumbay went to the A.C. ask for the letter; the man at the desk says; ""we must contact the italian A.C. in rome to verify the carnet's data !?! smoke gets throug my nose and ears, start to scream "" so what the f**k needs the carnet for, if you want to deal with A.C. in italy to check it out? now it's friday afternoon, the week end is coming i'll loose a lot of days more just to let to know you what the carnet in my hands already says"" he's back in five minutes with the f*****g letter in his hand asking for a 20 Eu. fee (with receipt). back to the airport the day after (you must to pay a daily fee to get in the cargo area after a noisy and long queue)at the office the agent met the day before stick to me, bring the paper and start the procedure, despite i refuse to deal with him. i let him do... i spend about 8 hours following him to go and back from an office to a building and so on. custom working hour stops at 5p.m. my crate was out just five min. before. than the agent takes me in a corner asking for his huge commission after i payd about 135 Eu. for processing thebike through the custom. i says "" my fiend, yesterday i told you your fare is expensive, thanx for your help but i'll try to do it by myself. this mornig you grab the papers from my hands and start to do by your own, without any agree between us. now you ask me 100Eu. as i haven't and i wont to give you. he looks at me raged, 'cause all the things were done now. i let 10Eu. in his hands, leaving away with his bloody eyes...
at the end it tooks me just one day to get my bike released out of the indian custom at mumbay airport, but what a pain in the a**.